allel.]

[Footnote 2: "To understand the point of this answer," says Mr.
Mackintosh, "it must be known that an old countess is introduced in
the novel full of cunning, finessing, and trick, who was intended to
represent Talleyrand, and Delphine was intended for herself."--_Life
of Sir James Mackintosh_, vol. ii. p. 453.]

[Footnote 3: This _mot_ is given to Talleyrand in Lady Holland's Life
of Sydney Smith. But it may be traced to one mentioned by Hannah More
in 1787, as then current in Paris. One of the _notables_ fresh from
his province was teased by two _petits maitres_ to tell them who he
was. "Eh bien donc, le voici: je suis ni sot ni fat, mais je suis
entre les deux."--_Memoirs of Hannah More_, vol. ii. p. 57.]

In London she was soon voted a bore by the wits and people of
fashion. She thought of convincing whilst they thought of dining.
Sheridan and Brummell delighted in mystifying her. Byron complained
that she was always talking of himself or herself[1], and concludes
his account of a dinner-party by the remark:--"But we got up too soon
after the women; and Mrs. Corinne always lingers so long after
dinner, that we wish her--in the drawing-room." In another place he
says: "I saw Curran presented to Madame de Stael at Mackintosh's; it
was the grand confluence between the Rhone and the Saone, and they
were both so d--d ugly that I could not help wondering how the best
intellects of France and England could have taken up respectively
such residences." He afterwards qualifies this opinion: "Her figure
was not bad; her legs tolerable; her arms good: altogether I can
conceive her having been a desirable woman, allowing a little
imagination for her soul, and so forth. She would have made a great
man."

[Footnote 1: Johnson told Boswell: "You have only two topics,
yourself and myself, and I am heartily sick of both."]

This is just what Mrs. Piozzi never would have made. Her mind,
despite her masculine acquirements, was thoroughly feminine: she had
more tact than genius, more sensibility and quickness of perception
than depth, comprehensiveness, or continuity of thought. But her very
discursiveness prevented her from becoming wearisome: her varied
knowledge supplied an inexhaustible store of topics and
illustrations; her lively fancy placed them in attractive lights; and
her mind has been well likened to a kaleidoscope which, whenever its
glittering and heterogeneous contents are moved or shaken, surprises
by som